Tin Tin Liston: August 1998 – 15 May 2014

Yesterday my beautiful boy left us; he didn't quite make 16 years here.

This photo from just five days ago is the story of an old dog's goodbye to his local beach and a precious moment between me and him in one of his favourite smellyplaces with his two favourite humans: the one kissing him and the one capturing the scene. If we look closely at him as he stands on this beach, we can see the lumps and bumps that eventually wore his resilient body down. We see the surgery scars on his back leg. We see him close his eyes as I kiss him and this tells us that he knows he is nearly ready to leave.

What we don't see is the wonderful backstory that started when a wriggling puppybundle in an animal refuge in Townsville chose this Irish girl to be his furever mum. He trotted at my side during six house moves (three states), nuzzled my neck during three break-ups, and wagged his tail and grinned widely for two make-ups, one engagement, one wedding and many, many miles of beach walks.

He was on Twitter (http://twitter.com/TinTinTheDog) and he blogged here and barked virtually with many other doogs all around the world. He was one of the early members of the Dogs with Blogs community set up by Brooke and Greg Lee.

He always reminded me to live and hope in the moment; for him there was always a chance that he'd be given a marrow bone, be brought for a walk, or simply get some quality ear-rubbing attention. He loved going for a drive, especially in my convertible; with the roof down he was a happy windswept doog.

It was hard to believe he was the age he was, which makes it all the more difficult to believe that he's gone. Now the leads and collars hang motionless, his bed is empty, the food and drink bowls are dry, and I must learn to live without him.

Run free, doog. Thank you for choosing to spend your precious life with me and enriching mine. May the marrowbones be juicy and plentiful wherever you are.

Jennifer Liston

So it's been almost a year, smellydoogs...

...and I've been tweeting over in that other Howlsville place where there are a whole lot of other smelly doogs and other critters and it's quite fun.

So go there.

If you like.

Meanwhile here's a photo of me and the ma.



It's my birthday very soon. I'll be 12.

You can do the maths to work out when this photo was taken.

The ma's quite film-starrish there, isn't she?

My training of her is already well in paw at this stage.

Chow for now, dooogs! xo

Smelly barkday to me, dooogs

Hey dooogs, 11 years ago today I was unleashed on the unsuspecting world.

About six weeks later - after being thoughtfully abandoned by some horrible odourless human - I was adopted by my current Irish human from the animal rescue shelter in Townsville.



And my life's been a good one with her (in spite of insufficient food and irregular bone distribution).



So because it's my barkday, here's a nose close-up.



...and here's one of me with legs in the air like I just don't care...



...so, do you still love me?



Chow for now, doooogs and biatches.

There's something about Charlie

Hey doogs, it's quite some time since I've barked here. I've been all a-twitter lately.

But I want to bark my respects here to my great doog pal, Chucksie-Bux, C$, the one and only bionical Charlie the Big Dog, who left us for good for the Rainbow Bridge on Saturday morning.

Doog, you smelt waft-a-licious – I know that from the fur you left on my ma's pants and on those goodies you and my gal pal Opy sent over.

Safe travelling, doog. Until we meet elsewhere...chow for now.

I'm passing the blog over to my ma (temporary, I promise).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hello, it's Jennifer here.

Robert and I were fortunate enough to have visited Brooke, Greg, Charlie and Opy in Melbourne in June 2008, shortly after Charlie the Big Dog had had his new pacemaker implanted.

We met a gorgeous, golden oldie. He was somewhat puffed with a little exertion, but that didn't stop him welcoming us graciously (and no doubt picking up the scent of our own exuberant Tin Tin). Opy and Charlie were great pals, watching each other but sort of ignoring each other in their own gruffpuppy way.

We all love our dogs. We all think our own dogs are particularly special.

But there was definitely something about Charlie.

He had a wisdom about him, a knowing-ness, a consciousness. Most dogs enjoy their treats, their toys, and make a fuss of their owners and friends.

With Charlie, you felt there was a sense of awareness of his lot, of his great fortune of having such a loving, devoted family who went to great lengths to keep him as healthy as possible without compromising his quality of life.

Those amazing eyes of his just looked, watched and knew.

To see Greg rolling and rumbling with him and sticking his face in that mass of golden fur was just so cute. The two were best buddies. The mutual respect and love was all there.

The second time I met Charlie the Big Dog was when I popped over to visit when Jeannie the Scottish Maiden was in town in May this year. Charlie seemed to be in great health and again I was greeted with a gracious welcome.

How he loved his tummy rubs! Except for his scar, you’d hardly have known he had undergone major surgery the previous year.

For Charlie, it was business as usual, rolling with Greg, cuddling with Brooke, greeting the visitors, keeping watch and doing the Charlie thing.

And now he’s gone.

Here at Tin Tin headquarters we are very sad indeed for the Lee household, and at a loss as to what to say or do.

They’ve lost their gorgeous, golden, much loved king of their castle.

We’re thinking of you Greg, Brooke and Opy. Take your time to grieve, and your time to heal will follow.

RIP, sweet Charlie. It was an absolute delight to know you.

Follow me on Twitter, doogs

Haven't been barking here in quite a while, dooogs...

...since I discovered the lazy doogs version of dogbloggin'...

...which is Twitter Howler.

(And yes, yes, yes, it should be 'Howl' if I were to be consistent and all that.

But I like the name Howler, okay?)

So come and chase me in the Twitterverse here: http://twitter.com/TinTinTheDog .

There are some delicious cats for stalking over there!

This doesn't mean I've totally abandoned my smelly blogplace here though.

Chow for now,

Tin Tin x

Smelly 2009, y'all

Reluctant Santa Doooog ...

... wishes all my bloggedy pawpals ...

... a howlingly good year, full of bones, tummy rubs and smelly butts.

(I still love all your butts to bits, even tho' I haven't been smellin' 'em lately. Forgive a doog?)

My ma wears Opy scent. Can you buy this in stores?

Hi doogs,

I'm so excited 'cos my ma and da went to visit my hero, my bionical doog pal Charlie...



...and my sexygruffy Opy-gal-pal...



Oh, and their humans.





And they had a great time. And they spent much longer there than they'd planned to. And they all seemed to get on like a house on fire (even though I wasn't there to moderate and play cute).

Bionical Charlie is lookin' good, and my ma and da got to see his battle scars and the lump which is his pawcemaker. He's such a brave doooog, but he's lucky to have such good, caring parents.

And as for my gorgeous gal-pal Opy, well, her drool and scent on my ma's jacket just about sent me into orbit. I'm still trying to find a way to relieve my ma of that item of clothing and roll around in my bed with it.

Ahem.

So anyway.

Charlie and Opy's humans gave mine Scooby snacks and a stuffy for me. How thoughtful. Thank you very much! Here's the stash:



I'm relieved my da didn't dip into the snacks on the drive back from Melbourne to Adelaide. I wouldn't have put it past him.

Here's my first sniff-down of the stash...



You're mine, l'il fella....





I'll deal with you later...



Here's me trying to hypnotise the ma into giving the Scooby treat to me NOW, but she's blinkin' well immune to that carry on...



...gimme that snack NOW...



....please?

Anyone know any good hypnodooog CDs so I can learn how to get the ma to do what I want?

Keep getting better, Charlie. I love Opy-gal.

Le sigh.

A night of entertainment, movies and popcorn. Without the entertainment and movies.

Tell me doogs, when a night at the movies with popcorn is suggested, WHO NEEDS THE MOVIES?

Yes I'm up for a howlin' night in...

...I'll stand for any type of candy bar...

....just waitin' for the credits to roll...

...now...pleeeeeeeeeease...

...delish.

Five gold stars for that entertainment.

NEXT!

Chow for now dooogs.

For five months I've been missin' you...

I'm so ashamed, I can hardly look at you, dooogs.



I'm hardly barkin' at the ma either.



Oh my dooog, five months?

Honestly, it's been way tooo long without your sniffs and howls, and I haven't been to your smelly blogplaces in agesssss either.



Can you ever forgive me?



Will you ever come and chew the fat again with me?



Of course I'll understand if you never want to sniff my butt again.



Perfect Tosca said she'd bite her foot if I didn't post soon.

I should really bite mine for being so slack, although it wasn't my fault, If. You. Know. What. I. Mean.


No doubt the ma will insist on including a list of pathetic excuses in a later dogpost. 'The dog ate my homework.' 'I was busy.' 'I had to listen to some flowers growing.' 'Let's take on some barkin' challenges and do them all at once, shall we?''I clean forgot.' 'Blog, what blog?' 'Oh look, is that fish really looking at me?' .


I hope you still have all your paws, lovely Tosca.

Thank you all for not forgetting me completely. Thank you for stopping by and leaving tasty comments.

What's the highest compliment I can pay you, to let you know how I feel about you?



Mmmmmm, I know.



You are all like marrow bones to me:

delicious, lickable, desirable, wondrously smelly, pantingly scrumptious, everydooog's dream....

....and oh so good for me!

The day I nearly ran away from home...to be with my pawgal Opy

So there I was on Friday evening last, mindin' my own bizziness, waitin' for the dinner, and the ma comes out and says:

"Great news, Tin Tin, we're going to get to meet Greg! You know, Opy and Charlie's SHD."

Whaaaaat?!

One of the two DWB doog-gurus?

Coming here to our shed?

I almost forgot about food, I was so excited.

Maybe I'd be able to catch a whiff of Opyroma off him.

Maybe a bit of her fur would be on him and I could sniff it off, sleep with it on my bed, and dream doooggy dreams.

Or maybe...

...he'd have a big enough car, and the ma wouldn't notice, and I could sneak into the back, and drive off with him, and then help Greg and Brooke and Opy and Charlie to move to their new human kennel.

So, after about 45 minutes, the Gregster rang the doorbell.

Woohooo.

We had a blast, him 'n' me.

He played tug with me.

He ruffled my coat.

He cuddled me.

He paid me ATTENTION.

I made sure to bring over to him my orange coz that Opy and Charlie sent me.



I could tell he loved me.

I loved him and gave him big sloppy Tin Tin kisses.



He was one of those humans that, you know, UNDERSTANDS dooogs.



(That's me above doing my best Gruffpuppy look.

Good, innit?

Opy, are you impressed?)

Anyway, Greg must understand weird humans too 'cos he and the ma and da had a good ole chat.

Then he had to go.

Moment of truth...should I stay or should I go?



What do you think I did, dooogs?

Why, it was dinner time. I couldn't possibly leave.

And, well, the ma might have missed me.

So Opy, please forgive me for not being a stowaway in your SHD's truck.

But I came sooooo close....

I'm lookin' forward to playin' with Greg again. And to meeting Brooke. But of course it's Opy and Charlie I want to hang out with.

One day.

Le sigh.

Hippo burpday to meeeeee. Wheeeee.

Hey doogs.

It's my burpday today, wooohoooo.

And remember that biscuit recipe that the ma got, oh, I don't know, decades ago?

I barked about it here.



Well anyway.

What does she do?

She goes and makes me some biscuits. Finally.



Oh. My. Dog. I am happy to confirm that they are dribblesomely delicious.



Oh, and I'm nine. Years old.

Going on nine months behaviourally, apparently.

Hee hee hee.

Now gimme those biscuits. Pleeeeeeeease ma.



Lookin' forward to barkin' and howlin' at y'all in the chat room sometime later.

Spot the dog...

...somewhere in here.

Can you see me?

Call me the grand master of disguise.



Keepin' a low profile...



...and keepin' snug...



...but this is where I've been...



Just doin' a bit of chewin' and keepin' the dogarazzis at bay.